2009 recap (april)

The month began with Brenna dying her hair red at school by pouring a bucket of red paint on her head.

Luckily, it came out in the bath that night, and she kept pointing at the suds and saying, "Uh-oh! Uh-oh!" I think the funniest part is that it is the exact same color that rebellious teenagers dye their hair.

On April 4, we participated in our township's Easter Egg Hunt around the corner. It was so cold, windy, muddy and miserable. The little kids got trampled by the older kids, and Brenna and I were just able to get one, pathetic little egg. She is an eternal optimist, though, and she was happy with her one egg. She was also thrilled to be collecting her eggs in a Coach bag rather than a basket (the wind and her age made me distrust her use of a basket that day!).



Oh, but, Brenna isn't the only girl in the family with fancy accessories. I joined the ranks of Julia Roberts and Brooke Shields with my newest present - the same double stroller they use (Halle Berry, Salma Hayek and Jennifer Garner have the single version). My mom, Erin, Kelly and Mommom all pitched in and bought the Baby Jogger City Mini Double Stroller as a gift for Jamie and I for the new baby! We are so lucky. It's awesome, and I did a ton of research on double strollers before deciding on that one. There is no perfect double stroller, but this one is about as good as it gets without being unGodly expensive.

Brenna tested her new wheels out with Cinderella. I hope the baby fares better than Cinderella did - the poor princess got body slammed to the floor for wearing out her new-stroller-welcome.



I was not surprised that Brenna would love Easter egg dying, which we did at Erin and Rob's house. Marmo (what Brenna has called Maura for the past 5 months) is also a big fan of the tradition. Bobby was a little distracted by the ball. He would happily throw a ball (or other objects) all day long!

On Holy Thursday, Erin and I had the brilliant idea to take the kids outside in their Easter outfits for pictures. It was one of the first warm days of the year, we had off from school, and we just thought it would be a nice time.

Why do we always forget what a nightmare it is to take pictures of the three of these children together? Bobby ate the gravel, Maura got yelled at the whole time for not listening to her mother, and Brenna was obsessed with eating the jellybeans in the back of the stroller. It wasn't the "photoshoot" I was aiming for, but we did get some decent pictures. None of them together, though. How are we going to do this with five children?










On Good Friday, Brenna got sick. So sick, in fact (she threw up all over her room in the middle of the night), that we almost cancelled going to Mike and Camille's Easter Party. Jamie called his cousin Stephanie, though, to ask what she thought, since she was the only other one with a child that was going to be there. Stephanie told Jamie to come, and Brenna seemd to be feeling better and her fever went away, so we went to the party.

There, she was spoiled with multiple Easter baskets, presents and attention from her dad's side of the family. It pays to be the only granddaughter in the family (so far)! Unfortunately, though, she was feeling pretty bad again in the afternoon and slept, moaned and even threw up again. She didn't eat a thing all day, and we assumed we would just stay home on Easter Sunday.

However, Brenna woke up on Easter morning a new girl! She was completely back to her normal self, and so we went to church with my parents, Erin, Rob, Maura, Bobby, Kelly, Ian and Mommom (we take up the entire long pew now - it's tight!) and then back to my parents' house. Aunt Mare, Uncle Chris, Kevin, Rose (and their new dog, Fergus), Jimmy, Katie, Colleen and Caitlin came over, too. I have not had a holiday with all of them in ages, and it was really nice!

The kids especially loved Po's Easter Egg hunt, which was way better than the township's! The weather was nice and each of the three children were able to fill their bags with eggs. Maura thinks that Easter is the BEST holiday of the year. Better than Christmas!

Here are a few pictures from Brenna's 2nd Easter...